New website aims to publicly shame apps with lax security. The amount of personal data traveling to and from the Internet has exploded, yet many applications and services continue to put user information at risk by not encrypting data sent over wireless networks. Software engineer Tony Webster has a classic solution—shame. Webster decided to see if a little public humiliation could convince companies to better secure their customers' information. On Saturday, the consultant created a website, HTTP Shaming, and began posting cases of insecure communications, calling out businesses that send their customers' personal information to the Internet without encrypting it first. One high-profile example includes well-liked travel-information firm TripIt. TripIt allows users to bring together information on their tickets, flight times, and itinerary and then sync it with other devices and share the information with friends and co-workers.
"I've kind of been overwhelmed in a sad but also in a good way with the number of submissions," he says. Welcome to Forbes. Internet security & privacy 101 for apps - Tekblog | Tekblog. Know thy apps Social media and mobile app vetting has been at the top of my list of pet peeves in Internet security and privacy for the past few years now. For the most part — I am angry that too many apps find their way onto the Internet from companies and developers that do not provide company and developer information, including full names of the developers and the geographical location of their company.
I feel that before I use any app that I should be able to: There are exceptions to the list above; such as a developer who works from home. Crap apps skinny-down I was ecstatic earlier this year when 60,000 crappy apps was booted from Google Play. Internet Responsibility I have an internal rule that tells me to never litter because it is bad for the environment and aesthetically displeasing. If I download a crap app I could be exposing myself to potential privacy and security violations. Why I won’t promote unknown apps Want the short-winded version of no? In Conclusion. GetCocoon. TRUSTe to Issue Free Privacy Policy Creation Starter Kit for Mobile Developers. Internet privacy solutions provider TRUSTe is concerned that mobile apps do not have built-in privacy solutions.
TRUSTe claims that 77% of all mobile applications lack privacy policies that can allow users to decide how they want to share data third parties. As such, TRUSTe is coming out with a free privacy policy for mobile developers later this month. Essentially what TRUSTe is coming out with is a privacy policy wizard or starter kit for mobile developers that do not have policies in place for their apps. Developers are led through a set of questions defining what their apps do and do not do in terms of privacy and at the end of the quiz, TRUSTe gives them a line of code that links to the apps privacy policy. The free version does not give a developer a certified TRUSTe privacy seal and there is potential for abuse of the system by creating a privacy policy with an app that does not follow those guidelines.
Privacy is a definite concern for mobile users. Get Cocoon Internet Services: iScanner v0.5 released - Malicious codes scanner.